Photo aficionados to meet in Bursa at Photofest

BURSA - Anadolu Agency

Indian Anjan Kumar Kundu’s photo was the winner of the festival last year.

The International Bursa Photography Festival (Bursa Photofest) will bring together numerous photography artists from 58 countries in the northwestern province between Oct. 5 and 18.

Bursa Mayor Recep Altepe held a ceremony to launch the third edition of the festival, while claiming that the event was the second largest photography festival in the world.

He said the festival, which had helped create Turkey’s visual history, would once again host the world’s most notable photography artists.

The festival was first initiated in 2010 and has become one of Bursa’s most entertaining programs since then, he said. “After the first festival in 2011, we saw that we reached our goals and decided to organize a sustainable festival that would be identified with Bursa. This year many photography artists and photo aficionados from the European, Asian, American and Australian continents will come together in the city. It will present the beauties of the world to Bursa. We want Bursa to be promoted in every field,” the mayor said.

World’s largest exhibit to open

Altepe said the festival was organized around the theme of “Encounters” in 2011, around “the Traces of Humanity” in 2012 and around the “Colors of Life” this year.

“The Bursa Photofest is the only photography festival organized between Paris and the Middle East. It ranks second in the world after France. This year the world’s largest exhibition will open with thousands of photos,” Altepe said.

“This year the festival will feature national and international exhibitions, artists talks, panels, portfolio works, photography contests and the like. The winners of competitions will receive a total award of 27,000 Turkish Liras. Some 2,179 people from 55 Turkish provinces are participating in the contests with 10,000 photos. Also, nine people from Turkey, Iran, Ukraine and Vietnam joined the Book Dummy contest,” he said.